GenreCon a great success

I’m very glad I got to go to GenreCon after all last weekend. Thanks to the AHWA for that. It really was a tremendous event, bringing writers of all genres (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, romance, crime and more) all together. The streams of panels were excellent, the venue was great and the organisation was simply top notch. Well done to convenor Peter Ball, and to Meg Vann and the team, for such a well organised and well executed con.

The international guests were also brilliant. Joe Abercrombie is an interesting and funny guy, who had time for everyone and always entertained on his panels. Ginger Clark, agent extraordinaire with Curtis Brown, gave a very inspiring and fascinating talk on what an agent does these days, which is a lot more than they used to. If all agents are like Ginger, we writers will be well looked after into the future. And Sarah Wendell, of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, gave a tremendous presentation on social media and “author platform”. This is a subject very familiar to me and I’ve given similar presentations myself. Sarah was clear, open and funny and she gave me a lot to think about. Most of her presentation went over things I already know, but even then she gave me new ways to look at them. And a handful of things new to me made the event really worthwhile.

Of course, the local Australian author guests were all very friendly and open, as was everyone at the con. I attended several really good panels.

Martin Livings launched his collection, Living with the Dead, as part of an Australian Horror Writers Association presentation, which I was very proud to be a part of. Seriously, Martin is a bloody great writer and you really should get hold of that collection.

The great debate, Plotters vs Pantsers, at the end of the con was hilarious, and Meg Vann announced that GenreCon 2 was confirmed for Brisbane next year. Bring it on!